She then took stunned Gary to a park and kissed him. And even after his family discovered the affair and reported her, she went to his home and spent the night with him in his bed, dressed only in her jeans and a bra.

Bus driver Brian, 35, freely admits he cheated on Smith soon after their wedding in 2004. The relationship produced a child, a son he still sees and helps support.

Brian says Bernadette's confession about boy stunned her

He believed they were over the trauma. But in the weeks before her affair with Gary, he knew something was wrong.

Smith was quiet and aloof and Brian feared she was seeing some-one else. And she confirmed his fears in a bombshell text – sent from her young lover’s home.

It read: “This is a hard text but has to be done. I can’t get over what you did. I do love you but can’t be with you any more.

“I have so much to tell you but it will have to happen when I’m ready. I need space.

“My phone will be off tonight so please don’t try and contact me.”

Brian said: “When I read it my mind went into overdrive. She was missing that night and no one knew where she was.

“I was phoning round her friends and family but no one had a clue. We were sick with worry.

“I now know she was at the lad’s house when she sent it.”

Smith came home the next morning as Brian was getting their two younger children, aged 10 and six, ready for school. When they were alone, she told him about her affair with Gary.

Brian instantly realised his wife had committed a serious crime. He asked if she had lost her mind.

Smith offered no explanation. She was called into school later that day and suspended.

That evening, she went to Gary’s home to find police there taking statements from him and his dad. She was arrested and spent the weekend in the cells.

Brian said: “The police told me she said she loved the lad and wanted to spend her life with him. I couldn’t get my head round it.

“What did this kid have that I didn’t? He was the mirror opposite to me. It was crazy.”

Then Brian’s brother showed him an edition of the Record with Smith’s picture on the front page.

He recalled: “When I saw her picture, a photo I’d taken, I dropped to my knees. I was wailing. My brother had to pick me up.

“This was my wife. I’d never felt pain like it.

“My affair should never have happened. I was totally out of order. Even though it must have been devastating for Bernadette, she wanted to try to save the marriage and I thought I had a second chance.

“I’ve tried to make it up to her ever since. I’ve never stepped out of the door without her. I’ve tried so hard.

“I didn’t know she was so unhappy. I just wish she’d said something.”

The Record's front page

Brian and Smith met as teenagers and had an on-off relationship for a few months. He was 17 when she told him she was expecting their first child, and he admits he wanted nothing to do with the baby at first.

He said: “I was a daft wee laddie, I was shocked and scared and had no idea about bringing up a child. I wanted to run and hide.”

But that all changed when he was shown a picture of his newborn daughter, now 18.

His parents convinced him to face up to his responsibilities and make a go of it with Smith. And as they spent more time together, they fell in love.

They separated for a few months after a blazing row. But Brian said: “We soon got back together, and had our second child a year before our wedding.”

Brian and Smith, of Denny, Stirlingshire, also seemed to have recovered from his affair – revealed when child support letters for him arrived at their home. But after his wife’s crime, he says their marriage is over for good.

He said: “There’s no coming back from this. I’m sure we both would have done things differently given the chance, but my family would never accept her again.

“Everything we had is broken.”

Brian added through tears: “All we’ve got left is the children. We now have to make sure we’re there for all three of them.”

He insisted he bears no grudge towards Gary, who admitted in a Record interview that he was frightened Smith’s husband would come looking for him.

Brian said: “Maybe other men would have gone round his house to teach him a lesson, but I’m better and bigger than that.